So Much Life in Those Stitches

# So Much Life in Those Stitches

I've been knitting for 55 years. Right now I'm working on a baby blanket for a grandson arriving in January, and the project has been humbling. The pattern is labelled simple, but assuming that meant I didn't have to pay close attention turned out to be a mistake.

I'd knit 16 or 20 rows, spot an error several rows back, frog (rip out) the work, and start over. I've done that more times than I want to count. I bought new stitch markers to give myself a little lift when I found myself reknitting the same section for the fourth time. I altered the pattern as I went, and the latest section is finally looking like what I intended.

The pattern mistakes are frustrating, but they also opened space to think about what knitting has given me beyond finished garments. I learned to knit at 15 while my mom taught my friend Debbie and me. I had no idea then that I would still be knitting decades later or that the things I made would attach themselves to people and moments in ways I couldn't predict.

That cardigan is a clear example of how objects can become repositories of memory. Other small projects—baby sets for friends, tiny knitted bunnies for mobiles, dozens of hats—are linked in my mind to the people I was thinking about while making them. Those ordinary hours of stitching now serve as part of how I remember particular people and periods of life.

Experience hasn't made me infallible. It has made me more flexible. I still have standards: I won't leave a glaring mistake in a blanket I'm making for my grandson just because fixing it is inconvenient. But I can laugh at myself, pull it apart, and try again without panic. If a pattern isn't working the way I want, I'll change it.

Someday I'll wrap my grandson in this blanket, and by then I'll probably have forgotten how many times I had to frog the darn thing. If he loves it half as much as my father loved that gray cardigan, I'll be very happy.

Is there a long-standing activity you do that now means more to you than it once did? Be kind to yourself.